There is life beyond green beans, mixed salad, broccoli with garlic or chickpeas with spinach.
If you are reaching the end of this challenge, which challenges you to eat less meat to take better care of yourself and better, surely you have already cooked several of the mentioned dishes.
Or even made a bolognese with rich lentils.
However, plant foods are tasty and diverse, and there are many products that we ignorantly do not consume, which lend themselves to excellent culinary experiences.
Dietitian-nutritionist Iva Marques and chefs Josean Alija, from Nerua Guggenheim Bilbao, and Olga Vázquez, from the vegetarian restaurant Oslo, in Valencia, detailed for BUENAVIDA the qualities of many of them.
We rescued three basic lessons that just save you a silly night, the kind in which everything smells like a hot dog, mixed with hamburger and a piece of steak.
These ideas tie in flavor and protein load.
Why are you reading this?
You are in the sixth step of a challenge to achieve a more plant-based diet.
If you complete it (there are seven learnings: one per day), you will see that you can live with less meat, and be happy.
Your health and the planet will appreciate it.
Click on the image to access the complete challenge.
Give tofu a try
How do you get the vegan darling to taste something?
Vázquez recognizes that tofu
is a complicated food, which should always be marinated in a brine
(“it can last a week in the fridge”, he emphasizes), and cook it fried, roasted or grilled when it is going well.
It is a preparation of soybeans, water and solidifier (11 grams of protein per 100), which will reach its maximum splendor with a touch of
wasabi.
"The right one so that it stings a bit, but without sneezing," notes the chef, who proposes taking it over a lupine sauce and with seasonal vegetables.
Marques likes it with those same baked veggies, and mashed peas and almonds.
And Alija invites you to replace the latter with an avocado and pea guacamole.
"But if you want a puree, this legume goes very well with aromatic herbs such as coriander and basil," he concedes.
Make a salad ... that is not mixed
If you are looking to reach stratospheric levels of protein, this is what the dietician-nutritionist indicates: chickpea spirals, tofu, pistachio, fresh corn in grains and mushrooms.
Vázquez's contribution so that it is also great: “Put a scoop of ice cream in the center.
It will give you an incredible refreshing touch.
And it can be done at home.
Tomato, avocado, orange ... ”.
As for the tofu, is anyone okay?
The chef responds: “The Biolife brand is very good.
There is cheddar, mozarella ... For this salad I would put taquitos of the second;
and the first, for some quesadillas with tofu, seitan and vegetables ”.
It is not worth the trouble to prepare the spirals at home.
“We will buy them done.
The chickpeas I don't know, but in Mercadona there are some lentils that are very good, "he warns.
Mushrooms and peas: your new best friends
Little more than a serving of mushrooms or seitan is what is needed to hit the heels of entrecote in terms of protein load
.
At the most, a pea puree (50 grams), as suggested by the dietician-nutritionist.
It is the combined egg-potatoes-chorizo for vegetarians.
“What if we try to make the seitan in batter, like a sanjacobo?
Kids will love it.
You marinate it, put a slice of cheddar in it and coat it, ”says the cook.
As for the pea puree, he recommends giving it a fresh touch, with some lime.
“First, fry onion or garlic with thyme, garnish with lime zest and mash it with peas.
Of course: these must be bleached before.
You take them out of the freezer, put them in boiling water for 3 or 4 minutes, and then put them in ice water.
This sudden change in temperature is a method of maintaining chlorophyll, which is what gives it that beautiful green color (if not, they will turn gray very soon).
And the mushrooms, if they are wild, make them sautéed.
Although I also confit them with rosemary and thyme, in the oven: sitake, ragout and portobello ”, concludes the chef at Oslo.
